Community Server 2008.5 Documentation

Community Server 2008.5 SP2 Installation Notes

Alex Crome — Mon, 16 May 2011 17:55:16 GMT

Current Revision posted to Community Server 2008.5 Documentation by Alex Crome on 5/16/2011 12:55:16 PM

Community Server 2008.5 Service Pack 2 supports the following installation scenarios:

New installation. Obtain the Community Server 2008.5 SP2 from Support.
Upgrade from an existing Community Server 2008.5 Service Pack 1.

Upgrade Notes

If you need to upgrade from a version of Community Server prior to 2008.5 SP1, then you must first upgrade to Community Server 2008.5 SP1, then apply SP2. The migration tools for CS 2008.5 SP1 are well-proven and stable; this is the smoothest path for you to move to CS 2008.5 SP2.

UPGRADE SCENARIOS

The following table describes how to upgrade your current version of Community Server to Community Server 2008.5 SP2.

Community Server Version	Instructions
Community Server 2007 or higher running on SQL Server 2005	Upgrade to Community Server 2008.5 SP1 using the Upgrader tool. Apply CS 2008.5 SP2 to your CS 2008.5 SP1 installation.
Community Server 2008.5 (without SP1) with SQL Server 2005	Apply CS 2008.5 SP1. Apply CS 2008.5 SP2.
Community Server 2008.5 SP1 with SQL Server 2005	Apply CS 2008.5 SP2.

Upgrade instructions

For sites with no customizations:

Note: If desired, before applying the upgrade, use a tool such as BeyondCompare to examine all the differences between your current site's Web folder and the service pack's files.

Back up your Community Server database.
Back up your Web site's files.
Copy the files from the Web folder of the Community Server SP3 distribution into your site'sWeb folder.
Verify settings in connectionstrings.config file are correct.
Apply the SQL upgrade script in the SQLScripts folder to your site's database.
Reset your site's application pool via iisreset or by "touching" the web.config file.

For sites with customizations:

Use a tool such as BeyondCompare or WinDiff to determine changes between all the files in your site's Web folder and the Web folder of the SP3 distribution. You will need to identify all changes and apply them manually or through a diffpatch.
Back up your Community Server database.
Back up your Web site's files.
Apply the changes from step 1.
Verify settings in connectionstrings.config file are correct.
Apply the SQL upgrade script in the SQLScripts folder to your site's database.
Reset your site's application pool via iisreset or by "touching" the web.config file.

SQL Server 2000 Users

At this time, the SQL patches included in SP2 are NOT compatible with SQL Server 2000. You can apply the binary updates and get the latest bug fixes; however, the performance changes in SP2's SQL scripts have not been ported back to SQL 2000.

If you have upgraded your Community Server install running on SQL Server 2000 to Community Server 2008.5 SP1, then you can apply the binary files over the top of that installation.

Enabling the Blog Contact Form

Stacy Randolph — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 00:09:12 GMT

Current Revision posted to Community Server 2008.5 Documentation by Stacy Randolph on 7/12/2010 7:09:12 PM

The Blog Contact Form allows users to send blog owners a request for contact. This feature allows blog owner to be contacted by users without having to make their email address and the addresses of other blog owners public. Community Server sends blog owners notification emails of the request.

If you are a blog owner or have administrative privileges that allow you to create a blog, you can enable the blog contact form.

Procedure

1. Navigate to Control Panel > System Administration > Blog Administration > Blogs. The list of blogs displays.

2. Click Manage to open the blog for which you want to enable the contact form.

The Write page displays.

3. Navigate to Configure > Blog Setup > Email.

4. Set Email notifications to either All Feedback or All Comments. The Enable the Contact me form setting appears.

5. Enable the Enable the Contact me form setting.

6. Click Save.

You can view contact requests by navigating to Manage > Feedback.

Click here for more information about managing contact requests.

Tags: contact

Browsing Tags

Jenny Jarrard — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 21:19:07 GMT

Current Revision posted to Community Server 2008.5 Documentation by Jenny Jarrard on 6/14/2010 4:19:07 PM

The Community Server functionality allows you to narrow your data search through the tag browsing functionality.

Suppose you want to search your community wikis for data on a particular topic. You begin your search by opening the wiki home page. There you will find the list of your wikis in your community, the most recently published wiki pages, shortcuts to wiki functionality, and, if enabled, a tag cloud. The default Community Server theme supports the tag cloud widget.

Authors can create tags when they create a post or add tags after the post has been created. Tags are a way of organizing information and facilitating information searches. The default theme used by Community Server supports a tag cloud widget, so as you add tags, they display in the tag cloud.

You can look through the tag cloud for tags that are related to the topic you want to find. When you find a tag, click on it to display the list of posts that use the tag.

Above the list of wiki titles that display in the central panel is an additional list of tags that are used by the wikis in the list.

You can browse further by clicking on any of the additional tags.

Related Information

Tags: search

Adding a Friend

Jenny Jarrard — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 21:16:55 GMT

Current Revision posted to Community Server 2008.5 Documentation by Jenny Jarrard on 6/14/2010 4:16:55 PM

The add friends feature allows you to designate particular users in your community to receive special privileges and for friends to be continually updated on each other's activity within the community.

To become friends with another member in the community, a user sends the member a friendship request. The member receives the request via email with links that give the member the option of accepting or rejecting the request. The following example shows an example of the links as they appear in an email.

When the member accepts the friendship request, the requesting member is added to the friendship list of the accepting member and the accepting member is added to the friendship list of the requesting member.

Community Server then keeps friends alerted to each others' activity in the community. For example, when a user publishes a post, the activity is published in the My Friends' Activity panel of the user's friends.

Procedure

1. Open the Public Profile of the user you want to add as a friend.

2. Click Add to Friends in the user's ID panel.

An email text box opens so you can enter a request.

Community Server does not require you to personalize the message. Even without a message, the user receives notification of the friendship request.

3. Click Send Request.

Tags: friends

Forums Overview

Jenny Jarrard — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 21:10:53 GMT

Current Revision posted to Community Server 2008.5 Documentation by Jenny Jarrard on 6/14/2010 4:10:53 PM

The primary function of the Forums main page is to provide you with access to all of your community's forums and discussions. You will note that the center of the page contains a list of forum posts.

The Browse Discussions section at the bottom of the main Forums page lists the forum groups and the forums contained in each group.

The above example shows two forum groups: Administrators and Sample. The forums contained in each are in smaller font beneath the forum group title. You can enter a forum by clicking on the group or a forum.

You can access your community's Forums main page by doing any of the following:

Clicking Forums on the navigation panel from any page in the community.

Clicking View all discussions from your Dashboard page.

The Community Server Forums main page looks like this:

Forum Post Sorting Functionality

Community Server also allows you to manipulate how forums content displays on the Forums main page. For example, you have several forums sorting options:

All Recent - Lists in descending order the most recent forum posts.
Unanswered - Lists the forums that have not generated any replies.
Unread - Lists the forums that have not been read.
Your Discussions - Lists forums in which you have participated in discussions.

Shortcuts Functionality

The Shortcuts section displays in the right sidebar.

The links available to you is based upon your role privileges. In the example above, you would not see any of the administrative links or Control Panel unless you had an administrative role.

View all users - Opens the Browse People page, from which you can search for other users in the community. Click here for additional information.
Posts you have not read - Lists the forum posts you have not read. When you open an unread post, it is removed from this list.
Forum Subscriptions - Opens the Forum Subscriptions page, from which you can subscribe to a forum and view the list of forums to which you have subscribed.
Who is online - Opens the Who is Online page, which displays all the users currently online.

Tags Functionality

You can also browse forums posts by tags. The Tags panel contains the list of tags used by the forum posts. The more common the tag, or the tags used with the most forum posts, display with the largest font. For example, the Blog, Blogs, CS 2.1 and CS 2007 tags are the most used in the Community Server blog posts, as shown in the tag cloud below.

When you click on an item in the tag cloud, Community Server opens a page with the list of all forum posts that use the tag. For example, if you click themes in the tag cloud, Community Server opens a page that lists all of the forum posts that use the themes tag.

Click here for more information about browsing by tags.

Forum Posts Functionality

You can open a post by clicking on the post title. Community Server supports two post workflows:

Discussion workflow

Click here for more information about the discussion workflow functionalities.

Q & A workflow

Click here for more information about the Q & A status tracking feature.

When someone replies to the post, Community Server displays the reply below the post content so it is viewable to everyone in the community.

Tags: discussion workflow

Community Server Architecture

Jenny Jarrard — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 20:59:18 GMT

Current Revision posted to Community Server 2008.5 Documentation by Jenny Jarrard on 6/14/2010 3:59:18 PM

Community Server is built with enterprise requirements in mind, but is still simple enough to set up in a matter of minutes. Please review our recommended requirements for your Community Server installation.

Community Server Architecture

Built on top of the object-oriented Microsoft .NET 2.0 platform, Community Server receives all the advantages of native compiled code and can run on either 32-bit or 64-bit Windows operating systems.

Community Server has been built from the ground up to take advantage of the core capabilities of the Microsoft .NET platform and as an application is organized around 3 logical tiers:

Web tier - This includes a suite of over 100 compiled C# server controls for rendering the user interface components as well as all the individual pages for displaying the UI.
Core Services tier - This includes an abstract data access API; over 75 different business logic components; an event pipeline for plugging in custom business logic; and a set of background services for operating on tasks outside of the processes serving active requests.
Repository tier - Through the data access API, the core services connect to the data repository through a well defined set of database calls. Extend it, improve it, and make it better

With an open and published API, source code available, and an event-driven pipeline, you have a variety of ways to extend Community Server. You can extend and customize the user interface without recompiling the code and add new user interface elements.

You can extend the core services business logic through pluggable modules that can participate in the processing of any request. The user authentication system also supports a pluggable single sign-on system for Windows Active Directory, Microsoft ASP.NET, Microsoft Passport, and Custom for any other single sign-on systems.

Troubleshooting the Friendly Error Message

Jenny Jarrard — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 20:54:42 GMT

Current Revision posted to Community Server 2008.5 Documentation by Jenny Jarrard on 6/14/2010 3:54:42 PM

When you receive the error:

We are currently unable to serve your request

We apologize, but an error occurred and your request could not be completed.

This error has been logged. If you have additional information that you believe may have caused this error please report the problem here.

you need to determine the underlying error when you report it on the Community Server forums to help debug the issue. You can either retrieve the error from the exceptions log in the Control Panel or temporarily disable friendly error messages and reproduce the error.

Note: if you have access to the console of the machine where Community Server is running (i.e. you are NOT using shared hosting) then the web.config is configured such that you can view the errors simply by viewing the site directly on the machine where Community Server is hosted.

Retrieving the Error from the Exceptions Log

Most errors causing this message are logged in the exceptions log within the Community Server Control Panel Dashboard. To retrieve the error, open the exceptions log tool. Use the criteria options to attempt to locate the error that occurred at the time that you encountered the message above. If the error occurred recently, change the Sort By field to Last Occurred and check the Include Unhandled Exception check box before clicking Go. The latest error will be shown first.

You can also clear the exceptions log, reproduce the error, and view the exceptions that were logged via the Exceptions report. You can clear the Exceptions Log by searching for exceptions and clicking Delete All.

Disable Friendly Error Messages

If you cannot retrieve the error from the Exceptions Log, you can disable friendly error messages by editing the web.config file.

Edit the web.config file in the root of your site
Edit the <customErrors> node in the web.config file and change mode="RemoteOnly" to mode="Off". Be sure to match the text case shown here ("off" is not equivalent to "Off").
Save the web.config file.
Reproduce the error by accessing the site.

The underlying error message should now be shown when the error is reproduced. When you have reproduced the error, you may want to restore mode="RemoteOnly" in the web.config file.

Installation Troubleshooting Guide

Jenny Jarrard — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 20:51:15 GMT

Current Revision posted to Community Server 2008.5 Documentation by Jenny Jarrard on 6/14/2010 3:51:15 PM

Community Server and Community Server Evolution are not your average applications. That is, they are not like desktop applications that many of us are accustomed to installing on our personal computers. Community Server/Evolution require external applications to function. These external dependencies make configuration exponentially more difficult. We're committed to making the installation and configuration process easier with each release so we welcome your feedback on how we can make the process better.

We recognize that today you might install Community Server or Evolution and the install might look like it worked (or you might not be able to tell if it was successful or not - another article for another day) but when you browse to the site you are confronted with errors and other issues. The purpose of this article is to provide you with guidance on how you can troubleshoot your installation.

If you received an error while running the MSI installation problem then these steps may not be of assistance to you. If you installed Community Server or Evolution using the web installer or manual installation then these steps will probably be of more assistance.

Step 1
Do you get the same result when you browse to http://yourcsurl as you do when you browse to http://yourcsurl/default.aspx (note: specifying the actual default page is key here)?

If you answered "Yes" to the step 1 question then proceed to step 2.

If you answered "No" to step 1 then you need to make sure that default.aspx is added to the Default Document list in Internet Information Server (IIS). To add default.aspx to the Document list, you first open the IIS administrative console.

Using the IIS administration console, you need to open the properties dialogue for your Community Server/Evolution website.

Finally, you navigate to the Documents tab. If you don't see default.aspx listed in the listbox then you need to add it.

Please attempt to browse http://yourcsulr/ and http://yourcsurl/default.aspx again to see if this has resolved the issue.

Step 2

Do you get a 404 Not Found error when browsing your Community Server site at the URLs used in step 1?

If you answered "Yes" then you need to do the following:

Ensure that IIS is pointing to the correct directory for your installation. If you are unsure how to find and use the IIS administrative console then follow the instructions in step 1 to get you to the IIS administrative console.

The default directory used by the MSI installer is C:\Program Files\Telligent\Community Server <version number>\. If you used the default install directory then you'd want your IIS website pointed at C:\Program Files\Telligent\Community Server <version number>\Web (where <vesion number> is replaced by the version you installed - i.e. 2008.5).
Ensure that the user account used by IIS/your website has the appropriate permissions to access the Community Server files. If you are running Windows XP/IIS 5.1 then your website files are accessed using the MACHINE\ASPNET account. If you are running IIS 6.0+ on Windows 2003+ then your website files are accessed using the NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE account. If you have questions about what account your website will be using then please see this ASP.NET identity matrix.

The root folder containing your website files needs READ & EXECUTE, LIST FOLDER CONTENTS, and READ permissions.

The filestorage folder (found in the Web folder) is unique to CS. The filestorage folder, by default, holds all of the files you upload to your community so Community Server needs to be able to write files to that folder. You'll need to navigate and ensure that the ASP.NET account (on WinXP/IIS 5.1) has MODIFY and WRITE permissions (in addition to the priveleges outlined in the previous step) to this folder.

If you answered "No" then proceed to step 3.

Step 3

Do you get a page full of markup?

If you answered "Yes" then you need to ensure that ASP.NET is installed on the machine in question. Then you need to read and follow the instructions here.

If you answered "No" then proceed to step 4.

Step 4

Do you get a blank page when browsing your Community Server/Evolution site?

If you answered "Yes" then you need to do the following:

Ensure that the folder where you installed Community Server/Evolution is marked as a Virtual Directory and Application in IIS.

Take notice that there is an application name in the Application name field. Also, take note of the icon in the tree view on the left as it is markedly different than the aspnet_client folder for example.
Ensure that there is a Global.asax file in the Web folder where you installed Community Server or Evolution.

We hope that this guide has served you well in getting Community Server or Evolution installed and running properly. If you have further questions then you should consider posting your question on the community forums or if you desire professional support directly from Telligent then you will need to go here.

Tags: install

Recommended Hosts for Community Server

Jenny Jarrard — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 20:35:13 GMT

Current Revision posted to Community Server 2008.5 Documentation by Jenny Jarrard on 6/14/2010 3:35:13 PM

Click here to find out more about Community Server certified hosts.

Tags: install

Installing Enterprise Search

Jenny Jarrard — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 20:23:58 GMT

Current Revision posted to Community Server 2008.5 Documentation by Jenny Jarrard on 6/14/2010 3:23:58 PM

Enterprise Search extends and enhances the search capabilities found in Community Server. New functionality includes advanced query syntax, faster searching, more accurate results, and index attachments to blog posts, forum posts, and gallery files. Click here to download Enterprise Search from the Telligent Store.

There are two parts to installing Enterprise Search:

1. The MSI install will setup the Telligent Tasks service. The Telligent Tasks service is responsible for the ongoing indexing of content in your Community Server or Evolution installation. You must run the MSI installer first.

Note: The installer only installs the task service for Enterprise Search, additional configuration is required to both the taks service configuration files and to the web site to use Enterprise Search.

2. The manual configuration of Enteprise Search.

Procedure

1. Install the MSI and follow the onscreen instructions.

2. Ensure your license file is installed in CS. Enterprise Search requires a Professional, Enterprise, or Enterprise Search specific Community Server license. (CS Beta Releases already have a demo license installed).

3. Ensure your web site is running under Full Trust (Lucene currently is configured to use the windows temp folder to place its lock files, this requires the web application to be running under full trust). Edit the web.config and add the following to the system.web section:

4. Copy the following files from the root of your Community Server or Evolution web site to the Telligent.Tasks.EnterpriseSearch installation folder. Note: if you are not using the tasks service you can skip this step.

communityserver.config
siteurls.config
connectionstrings.config
the “Languages” folder and all of its contents

5. Edit the communityserver_override.config file in the Telligent.Tasks.Enterprise search folder. If you are doing a manual install you can find this folder in the Enterprise Search installation zip file under the manual install folder.

You will need to specify a folder for the search index to use for its files. The ASPNET worker process will need read permissions to this folder. The account that the Tasks Service is running under will need full control.

You will need to ensure the <sites> block information is correct. The application name needs to be the same as the one you provided when you created your CS or Evo community (dev is the default, and would be the application name if you used the MSI to install your site). Further you need to specify the URL that your users will be using to access your site, ES requires this to build the correct virtual paths to posts.

For CS2008 you will also need to update the path to the filestore because by default the config uses a web reference which the task service will not resolve. To allow the task service to be able to index files, you need to provide a valid filesystem path to the filestorage folder for the CommunityServer.Components.PostAttachments.

If you plan to use the web tasks service to run the Enterprise Search jobs (this is not recommended for production environments) uncomment the “<override><Task>” blocks in the communityserver_override.config file for the indexer jobs and the optimizer jobs. You should also remove the “Remove” command for the “Email” job, as you will want to continue to run this job from your web site.

6. Copy the communityserver_override.config into the root of your web site (next to the existing communityserver.config file)

7. If you are manually installing these tasks into an existing tasks service, you need to copy the communityserver_override.config into the tasks service installation folder. Additionally you need to add the new “tasks” outlined in the zip\Manual Install\tasks.config file into your existing task service installation tasks.config

8. Copy the 4 Enterprise Search dlls into the web\bin folder (copy the following files from the Telligent.Tasks.EnterpriseSearch folder or from the zip Manual Install folder as appropriate; if you are doing a manual install to an existing tasks service, you will need to copy these files to the tasks service install folder as well)

CommunityServer.EnterpriseSearch.Components.DLL
CommunityServer.EnterpriseSearch.DLL
Lucene.Net.DLL
Highlighter.Net.DLL

9. Reset the indexing flag on your existing posts. You can reset the indexing flag by running the following SQL script against your community server database:

UPDATE cs_Posts set IsIndexed = 0

Note: this step is only necessary if you are converting a site from SearchBarrel. If you are upgrading an existing Enterprise Search site you can skip this step.

10. Start the windows service manually or reboot (the service is set to auto start, a reboot is not required for installation). To start the service manually you can open a command prompt and enter the following:

NET STOP "Telligent Tasks Service"
NET START "Telligent Tasks Service"

If this is a new Enterprise Search installation, in about 5 minutes, you should start to see files in the Index folder location you specified in step 4; and you should start to see search results on your site. If you are updating an existing Enterprise Search installation, you should have search results right away.

If your membership database is not in the same database as community server, you will need to edit the "connectionStringName" property of the membership, rolemanager, and profile sections of the Telligent.Tasks.Console.exe.config file and the Telligent.Tasks.Service.exe.config files in the Telligent.Tasks.EnterpriseSearch installation folder.

Additional Resources

Tags: enterprise search

Rendering Resources on a Page

Jenny Jarrard — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 20:21:25 GMT

Current Revision posted to Community Server 2008.5 Documentation by Jenny Jarrard on 6/14/2010 3:21:25 PM

Rendering resources on a page

You can render resource through a Resource Control.

<CSControl:ResourceControl runat="server"
ResourceName="resourceName" />

The Resource Control will display the resourceName resource from resources.xml. If you want to use a different resource file, specify the Resource File to use on the Control.

<CSControl:ResourceControl runat="server"
ResourceName="resourceName"
ResourceFile="MyResourceFile.xml " />

You can also specify Parameterised resources. Most Chameleon Single Value controls allow you to use {0} in the resource to use the control would normally display. For example, if you specified the following resource in a custom resource file (e.g. "MyResourceFile.xml")

<resource name="postedDetails">Welcome Back {0}!</resource>

you could then use the following markup to display Welcome Back USERNAME:

<CSControl:UserData runat="server"
                Property="DisplayName"
                ResourceName="UserName"
                ResourceFile="MyResourceFile.xml" />

You can display multiple parameters in the same resource. For example, to display Posted on DATE by USERNAME in the forums (where DATA and USERNAME are the date a post was made and the user name of the user who made the post respectively), you can specify the following in a resource file:

<resource name="postedDetails">Posted on {0} by {1}</resource>

Then in your theme you can use the following markup:

<CSControl:ResourceControl runat="server"
                ResourceName="postedDetails"
                ResourceFile="MyResourceFile.xml">
                <Parameter1Template>
     <CSForum:ForumPostData runat="server"
   Property="PostDate" />
   </Parameter1Template>
                <Parameter2Template>
   <CSControl:UserData runat="server"
   Property="UserName" />
                </Parameter2Template>
</CSControl:ResourceControl>

This markup replaces {0} in the resource with the Parameter1Template, {1} with the Parameter2Template. The ResourceControl supports specifying up to 9 different parameter templates, but more could be used by programmatically using resources.

Programmatically using resources

You can programmatically access resources by using the CommunityServer.Components.ResourceManager.GetString methods.

To get a resource from the default resource file (resources.xml), use

ResourceManager.GetString("resourceName");

To get a resource from a custom resource file, use

ResourceManager.GetString("ResourceName", "ResourceFileName.xml");

Tags: language

Full list of bug fixes in CS2008.5 SP3

Joe Morel — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:43:07 GMT

Current Revision posted to Community Server 2008.5 Documentation by Joe Morel on 3/16/2010 12:43:07 PM

Service Pack 3 addresses a number of bugs identified in Community Server 2008.5 Service Pack 3. You are eligible to download and apply this service pack if you are up-to-date on your license.

If you are using:

Nothing yet, and want the latest Telligent products - Download Telligent Community 5.5
Community Server 2008.5 - Download and apply the services pack updates for SP1, SP2, and SP3
Community Server 2008.5 Service Pack 1 - Download and apply Service Pack 2 update first, then the Service Pack 3 update.
Community Server 2008.5 Service Pack 2 - Download and apply the Service Pack 3 update.

Contact Telligent Support if you have questions about your account.

Community Server 2008.5 Service Pack 3 contains fixes for:

Users
Blogs
General issues
Groups
Wikis
General
SharePoint

Users

Users who have created wiki pages can now be deleted, with their content reassigned to another user
Users with conversation content can now be deleted, with their content reassigned to another user

Blogs

Error content is no longer injected into blog posts
Personal blogs no longer appear in the forums list on the Forums Web part

General Issues

Activity messages sent out from Web services endpoints are changed by Web parts from relative paths to absolute paths so that links will get back to Community Server content

Groups

Groups Web parts now display appropriate information in breadcrumbs

Wikis

Deleted wiki pages are no longer visible to regular users
Users with wikiadmin and wikimoderator roles can now create wikis

General

Forms authentication SSO modules now create new users properly when using a key/value pair profile cookie and encryption is turned on
Fixed case sensitivity issues which could cause problems in certain case-sensitive database configurations

SharePoint

Document library synch is no longer blocked by permissions errors
Community Server Settings page under a synched document library now displays the breadcrumb navigation bar
Forums thread viewer sidebar parts now show titles by default
REST timeouts no longer impact Web parts features
REST timeouts no longer cause incorrect replies counts
SharePoint Integration installation now includes versioning to help system administrators manage their systems
SharePoint Integration handles errors from Web service calls more gracefully
Download permissions no longer have to be granted to the Everyone role for activity messages to be logged
Activity messages now return relative paths instead of absolute paths

Question and Answer Thread Functionality

Jenny Jarrard — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 21:15:04 GMT

Current Revision posted to Community Server 2008.5 Documentation by Jenny Jarrard on 2/26/2010 3:15:04 PM

The Question and Answer functionality is very useful in support scenarios where users come to your community posting questions because it provides a means of tracking whether questions have been answered or not.

Below is a screenshot of a sample Question and Answer thread.

Understanding Q&A

A Question and Answer thread contains four types of posts - the original question, normal responses, suggested answers and verified answers.

The original Question

The original question appears at the top of every page in the thread. This helps users who visit a page within a thread from an external link (e.g. a search engine) to know what the original problem in the thread was. It also reminds viewers of the original question as threads get over a page in length.

Normal Responses

Some responses to the question will have no special status. These may be posts trying to diagnose what a problem is before providing a solution, or posts which had been suggested as answers but did not solve the poster's problem.

Verified Answer

Verified Answers appear in two separate locations within a thread. Verified Answers appear on every page (just under the Original Question). This helps users who follow an external link to your community (e.g. from a search engine) quickly see what the solution to the problem is without having to sift through lots of posts to work out the solution. Verified answers are highlighted in green to make them stand out from the other responses in a thread.

Verified Answers can be rejected as answers if the answer was verified by accident, or the solution only worked temporarily. This can be done by the poster of the original question, or by users with the Mark as Answer permission.

A thread can have more than one verified answers. This is useful in scenarios where two very different solutions have been posted to a problem which both work. Both authors will receive points as a reward for their suggestion, and any other person who comes across the thread can see both solutions and decide on which is most appropriate for their needs.

Using Q&A

Starting a Q&A thread

A question and answer thread is started in exactly the same way as a normal thread. Just go to the forum you want to post in and press the "Create New Post" button. You will only see a difference in the experience between creating a new discussion and a new question if the the forum you're posting to allows both Discussion and Question threads. In this case you'll be asked to specify if your post is a Discussion or a Question.

If only Question threads are enabled, a user's question will be automatically marked as a question when they post.

Suggesting an Answer

There are two ways an answer can be suggested.

Respond to a question by pressing the next to the question at the top of the page.
Clicking the button on an existing response to a question (This can be done by anyone apart from the user who posted the question).

Verifying an Answer

To verify a suggested answer, click the button. This can be done by both the original poster, and users with the "Mark as Answer" permission. Normally this is used to verify a suggested answer, but it can also be used if a response is posted which solves the problem but was not marked as a suggested answer.

When an answer is verified, the author of the response will receive points as a reward for helping the original poster.

Rejecting an Answer

To reject a verified or suggested answer, press the button to reject the response and demote it to a normal response. Any user who has the "Mark as Answer" permission, and the original poster will also be able to Reject a suggested answer.

When an answer is rejected, the author of the response will lose any points they received for suggesting a validated answer..

Monitoring Questions

When viewing threads in a forum, you can see at a glance which posts have been answered, and which have not. Posts which have been answered have a green check mark next to the thread name, posts with suggested answers have a yellow check mark () while questions which haven't been answered have a red question mark (). Discussion threads have no icon next to them.

The Unanswered posts list has also been updated to include questions without answers, or with suggested answers, in addition to non question and answer posts which have not received any replies.

Reporting with Harvest

Whilst this goes slightly beyond the scope of this article, I thought it was worth pointing out that Harvest Reporting Server provides a number of reports around Question and Answers.

(If you click on either of the screenshots above you'll be taken to the relevant pages in the Harvest demo to have a look at the Questions and Answer reports Harvest provides..)

Managing Q&A

The question and answer functionality is not appropriate for all scenarios so it's possible to turn this functionality on or off both forum wide and on a per forum basis.

Globally Enable / Disable Q&A

To globally enable or disable the question and answer functionality , go to Control Panel, open Forum Administration and click on Global Forum Settings (either link from the Forum Administration homepage, or under the Configuration section). Under the General tab find the "Enable Thread Status Tracking" and change this to Yes or No as required.

Enabling / Disabling Q&A per forum

The following options may not appear if Thread Status Tracking is globally disabled. To check if this is enabled, follow the instructions in the "Globally Enabled / Disable Q&A" section above.

To enable question and answer on a per forum basis, open up Forum Administration section of Control Panel then go to the Forums page under Forums and Groups. Find the Forum you want to change and press Edit. You can now chose whether question and answer is enabled under the "Allowed Thread Types" option.

If you want to force all threads to be Questions, you can deselect the "Discussion" option. Click here for more information.

Question and Answer Thread Functionality

Jenny Jarrard — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 20:54:15 GMT

Revision 5 posted to Community Server 2008.5 Documentation by Jenny Jarrard on 2/26/2010 2:54:15 PM

Below is a screenshot of a sample Question and Answer thread.

Understanding Q&A

A Question and Answer thread contains four types of posts - the original question, normal responses, suggested answers and verified answers.

The original Question

Normal Responses

Verified Answer

Using Q&A

Starting a Q&A thread

If only Question threads are enabled, a user's question will be automatically marked as a question when they post.

Suggesting an Answer

There are two ways an answer can be suggested.

Respond to a question by pressing the next to the question at the top of the page.
Clicking the button on an existing response to a question (This can be done by anyone apart from the user who posted the question).

Verifying an Answer

When an answer is verified, the author of the response will receive points as a reward for helping the original poster.

Rejecting an Answer

When an answer is rejected, the author of the response will lose any points they received for suggesting a validated answer..

Monitoring Questions

When viewing threads in a forum, you can see at a glance which posts have been answered, and which have not. Posts which have been answered have a green tick () next to the thread name, posts with suggested answers have a yellow tick () while questions which haven't been answered have a red question mark (). Discussion threads have no icon next to them.

The Unanswered posts list has also been updated to include questions without answers, or with suggested answers, in addition to non question and answer posts which have not received any replies.

Reporting with Harvest

Whilst this goes slightly beyond the scope of this article, I thought it was worth pointing out that Harvest Reporting Server provides a number of reports around Question and Answers.

(If you click on either of the screenshots above you'll be taken to the relevant pages in the Harvest demo to have a look at the Questions and Answer reports Harvest provides..)

Managing Q&A

The question and answer functionality is not appropriate for all scenarios so it's possible to turn this functionality on or off both forum wide and on a per forum basis.

Globally Enable / Disable Q&A

Enabling / Disabling Q&A per forum

The following options may not appear if Thread Status Tracking is globally disabled. To check if this is enabled, follow the instructions in the "Globally Enabled / Disable Q&A" section above.

If you want to force all threads to be Questions, you can untick the "Discussion" option. Click here for more information.

How do I manually add new links to the navigation bar?

Jenny Jarrard — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:08:42 GMT

Current Revision posted to Community Server 2008.5 Documentation by Jenny Jarrard on 2/26/2010 11:08:42 AM

This article applies to anyone running a custom theme or one that does not support navigation configuration via the control panel. If you are running a theme (such as the default) that supports configuration via the control panel then we highly recommend you use the control panel to change the navigation items.

There are two main files you need to look at, resources.xml and siteUrls.config. You can find the resources.xml file at <install drive>:\program files\telligent\community server\web\languages\<language code>\ on a default installation. You can find the siteUrls.config file at <install drive>:\program files\telligent\community server\web\ on a default installation.

First, let's make the necessary modifications to the siteUrls.config file. To modify the siteUrls.config file you will need to open up the siteUrls.config and scroll to the bottom, there you will see a set of tags that look something like this:

Once you've found the <navigation> section, you can remove the links for the default navigation bar, change or add your own links, The best way to add a new menu item is to simply copy and paste one of the existing <link> tags.

Attribute	Attribute Description
name	name simply identifies the element within the siteUrls.config file. The name must be unique to the config file.
resourceUrl	resourceUrl value maps to a <url> tag elsewhere in the siteUrls.config file (where the path or url for the navigation item is actually stored)
resourceName	resourceName value maps to a resource name in the resources.xml file (where the actual text for the navigation element is stored)
roles	roles determines what users can view the navigation link. You can specify multiple roles by separating them with a comma.

Note: you can specify an actual link, text, etc. right in the siteUrls.config file using an entry similar to the following:

In the example above, the name attribute must be unique within the siteUrls.config document. The navigateUrl attribute should contain the actual URL of the navigation item and the text will contain whatever text we want users to see for the new navigation item.

We need to set the text value for the navigation item. To modify the text, we need to open the Resources.xml file. All of the text values used in Community Server are stored in resource files. This is important because without language specific resource files it would be very difficult to make Community Server available in more than one language. Once you've opened the Resources.xml file, scroll down just a bit and you'll see a section similar to this.

<resource name="other">other</resource>
<resource name="home">Home</resource>
<resource name="weblogs"></..........

These <resource> tags mark the main navigation items. You will need a corresponding <resource> tag for any new entries you create in the siteUrls.config file. The name attribute value must be unique within the Resources.xml file. The text inside the <resource> tag ("other" using an example from above) is the actual text for your navigation item.

Be sure to save the file once you've added the necessary tags. Community Server caches this data so you'll need to open and save your web.config (commonly referred as "touching the web.config") to force Community Server to reload the data.

Tags: FAQs

How do I change the default content editor?

Jenny Jarrard — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:06:48 GMT

Current Revision posted to Community Server 2008.5 Documentation by Jenny Jarrard on 2/26/2010 11:06:48 AM

Community Server/Evolution ship using the TinyMCE editor. There are different flavors of the editor that provide varying levels of functionality. We refer to the flavors as Plain Text, Standard, and Enhanced. Out of the box, Community Server and Evolution use the TinyMCE editor in Standard mode. Individual users can set the content editor for their account in the user profile.

Follow these steps to change the default content editor for all new accounts:

Open your CommunityServer.config file in the root of your site. On a default install, the root of your site is located at <installdrive>:\program files\telligent\community server 2008.5\web for CS or <installdrive>:\program files\telligent\community server evolution\web for Evolution.
Look for the <editors> section
Under the entry for the “standard” editor, remove the “default=true” attribute:

a.   <editor name="Standard"
           type="CommunityServer.Controls.TinyMCE,
           CommunityServer.Controls" default="true"
           resourceName="EditorType_Standard_Name">
Under the entry for the “enhanced” editor, add the “default=true” attribute.
Restart the application in IIS and the enhanced editor should be the default editor for all new users to the site.

Community Server/Evolution provide a pluggable framework for editors that allows a developer to plug in an alternative editor to the ones shipped with the product. For example, some folks are partial to the FCK-editor so we built an FCK-editor wrapper (obtainable from Support) so that it could be used in Community Server/Evolution.

Tags: content editor

Managing Licenses

Jenny Jarrard — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:03:03 GMT

Current Revision posted to Community Server 2008.5 Documentation by Jenny Jarrard on 2/26/2010 11:03:03 AM

In order to unlock some features in Community Server, you must purchase and install a license. Obtain the service pack license from support.

You upload licenses though the Control Panel User Interface. Telligent has also included integration with the Store so if your installation server can access the Internet, it can download the license file by providing your License Key (an alpha-numeric string).

Procedure

Navigate to Control Panel Dashboard > System Administration > Site Administration > Manage Licenses.

You can install and add licenses, delete existing licenses, and review the current license attributes and usages from the Manage Licenses page.

Configuring Global Membership Properties

Jenny Jarrard — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:00:30 GMT

Current Revision posted to Community Server 2008.5 Documentation by Jenny Jarrard on 2/26/2010 11:00:30 AM

The membership configuration functionality allows you to set up the basic properties for your community members, such as membership account settings, member display lists, and roles cookie settings.

Procedure

Navigate to Control Panel Dashboard > System Administration > Membership Administration > Configuration. The membership administration control applet page displays.

The member Configuration work flow contains sub-heading tabs, representing the work flow tasks. As you open a work flow task, Community Server provides sub-headings, or pages, for each task. You can navigate the work flow tasks by clicking on the tabs.

Specify the site settings for each site configuration work flow task:

Click Save.

Tags: member

Installing a Community Server Service Pack

Jenny Jarrard — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:15:48 GMT

Current Revision posted to Community Server 2008.5 Documentation by Jenny Jarrard on 2/26/2010 10:15:48 AM

Community Server periodically makes service packs available to users to enhance the evolving Community Server functionality. Obtain the service packs from Support. You should periodically check this site to find out if you have downloaded the latest service packs.

Procedure

1. Back up your database and your site files. Although Telligent does not anticipate any problems with the service pack installation, you should always back up your database and site files as a precaution.

2. Create a folder on your local drive or server into which you can download the service pack.

3. Download the latest Community Server service pack to the folder you created in Step 2.

4. Copy the following folders from your downloaded folders to your Community Server installation folder:

All the files in the /Web/ folder to your Community Server root folder.
All the files in the downloaded /binaries/ folder to your Community Server /Web/bin/ folder.
If you use the Software Development Kit (SDK), copy all the files from the downloaded /src/ folder to the folder in which you installed the SDK.

5. Run the upgrade script inside the SqlScripts folder against your database with a tool such as SQL Management Studio Express.

6. If you’re using the Community Server Single Sign On Modules, you will need to reinstall the SSO modules (this doesn’t apply for Evo Service Pack install).

7. If you’re on IIS7, you will need to re enable Double Escaping (this does apply for Evo Service Pack install) (this should be included in the cs/evo web.config file by default).

Tags: install

Community Server 2008.5 SP2 Installation Notes

Jenny Jarrard — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:14:51 GMT

Revision 7 posted to Community Server 2008.5 Documentation by Jenny Jarrard on 2/26/2010 10:14:51 AM

Community Server 2008.5 Service Pack 2 supports the following installation scenarios:

New installation. Obtain the Community Server 2008.5 SP2 from Support.
Upgrade from an existing Community Server 2008.5 Service Pack 1.

Upgrade Notes

UPGRADE SCENARIOS

The following table describes how to upgrade your current version of Community Server to Community Server 2008.5 SP2.

Community Server Version	Instructions
Community Server 2007 or higher running on SQL Server 2005	Upgrade to Community Server 2008.5 SP1 using the Upgrader tool. Apply CS 2008.5 SP2 to your CS 2008.5 SP1 installation.
Community Server 2008.5 (without SP1) with SQL Server 2005	Apply CS 2008.5 SP1. Apply CS 2008.5 SP2.
Community Server 2008.5 SP1 with SQL Server 2005	Apply CS 2008.5 SP2.

SQL Server 2000 Users

If you have upgraded your Community Server install running on SQL Server 2000 to Community Server 2008.5 SP1, then you can apply the binary files over the top of that installation.

Community Server 2008.5 Documentation

Community Server 2008.5 SP2 Installation Notes

Upgrade Notes

UPGRADE SCENARIOS

Upgrade instructions

SQL Server 2000 Users

Enabling the Blog Contact Form

Browsing Tags

Related Information

Adding a Friend

Forums Overview

Forum Post Sorting Functionality

Shortcuts Functionality

Tags Functionality

Forum Posts Functionality

Community Server Architecture

Troubleshooting the Friendly Error Message

Installation Troubleshooting Guide

Recommended Hosts for Community Server

Installing Enterprise Search

Rendering Resources on a Page

Full list of bug fixes in CS2008.5 SP3

Users

Blogs

General Issues

Groups

Wikis

General

SharePoint

Question and Answer Thread Functionality

Understanding Q&A

The original Question

Normal Responses

Suggested Answer

Verified Answer

Using Q&A

Starting a Q&A thread

Suggesting an Answer

Verifying an Answer

Rejecting an Answer

Monitoring Questions

Reporting with Harvest

Managing Q&A

Globally Enable / Disable Q&A

Enabling / Disabling Q&A per forum

Question and Answer Thread Functionality

Understanding Q&A

The original Question

Normal Responses

Suggested Answer

Verified Answer

Using Q&A

Starting a Q&A thread

Suggesting an Answer

Verifying an Answer

Rejecting an Answer

Monitoring Questions

Reporting with Harvest

Managing Q&A

Globally Enable / Disable Q&A

Enabling / Disabling Q&A per forum

How do I manually add new links to the navigation bar?

How do I change the default content editor?

Managing Licenses

Related Topics

Configuring Global Membership Properties

Installing a Community Server Service Pack

Community Server 2008.5 SP2 Installation Notes

Upgrade Notes

UPGRADE SCENARIOS

SQL Server 2000 Users